4 replies to this topic

[Managuense]

Hey guys, i have 2 petricola pushing 6-7cm now. As was wondering how to sex them. One is quite plumper than the other, does that mean it is female or just fat from all the food..

If any one has any pictures of males and females with i can compare to that would be great

Cheers
Kyle

[Shane_H]

Hi,

In my short experience with keeping these and reading about them, yeah, the slightly fuller boddied ones are generally female and the smore slender ones are male. In Syno. petricola it's quite noticeable I think.

[Managuense]

thanks mate. Does anyone else know how to sex them

[JimmyTheFish]

As mentioned males are quite slender when compared to females. This is very pronounced when females are carrying eggs. Males also tend to be lighter in colouration between the spots, almost white in fact where the females are more of a brown.

I've bred mine in the past. It's quite time consuming and takes a while for the fry to grow to a decent size, but if you want to try take a small dark coloured glass bowl and put a few layers of dark coloured marbles in the bottom. Place a terracotta pot big enough to envelope the bowl (darkness inside is essential) upsidedown over the top of the bowl. Make sure the hole in the bottom of the pot is big enough for the fish to squeeze through. Thats it. Wait about 48 hours after you see the petricola using it and you should be able to see the white fry/eggs easily in the dark bowl. At this stage I use a small eye dropper to pick out the fry and place them in an egg tumbler with a fine mesh in the top and bottom of the tumbling chamber. Tumble them until their yolk sac disappears. move them into a fry raiser and feed on BBS and/or pulverised quality flake food.

Cheers

James

[Sand muncher]

James is spot on, I do the same.

They are very hard to sex any other way.

Cheers
Scott